About 56 lakh farmers are set to lose subsidies that they had availed last year under the Raitha Shakti scheme as the government is likely to put a pin on the scheme this fiscal.
Raitha Shakti was introduced by former Chief Minister Basavaraj Bommai in 2022, under which farmers were eligible for diesel subsidy at Rs 250 per acre and up to a maximum of five acres. The government had introduced the scheme in order to encourage farm mechanisation and to reduce the burden of power bills on farmers.
Sources in the agriculture department said they were awaiting the finance department’s decision as they had no clarity on whether or not to continue the scheme. Chief Minister Siddaramaiah’s 2023-24 budget makes no mention of the scheme.
According to government data, there were 55,94,781 farmer beneficiaries for the scheme across the state. The government had earmarked Rs 412 crore for this subsidy. The government tabled this data in the Legislative Assembly in response to a question raised by Hirekerur MLA U B Banakar.
However, farmers say such a subsidy will be useful to them if only the government increased the amount. “Rs 250 per acre will fetch us about three litres of diesel. The government must grant at least five litres per acre and release a sum total for the entire year,” Mahadev Madiwal, the Raitha Sangha president from Athani in Belagavi, said.
Albeit the government claiming that the money was transferred to beneficiaries, Madiwal alleged that the scheme had only remained on paper. “It has not reached the beneficiaries,” he said.
Farmer leader Kuruburu Shanthakumar concurred saying that not more than 10 per cent of the farmers benefited from the scheme. Nonetheless, he stressed the importance of continuing farmer-centric schemes. “Trying to arrange funds for the five guarantees, the government has cut funds across irrigation, agriculture and cooperative departments which will impact farmers,” he pointed out.